Playworks helps schools offer safe activities throughout the school day and after-school programming.

Playworks Michigan, a Detroit-based nonprofit affiliate working to keep kids active and healthy through play, is expanding its reach to elementary schools in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Lansing.

The organization will add 17 schools to its roster this September with assistance from a $500,000, two-year Michigan Health Endowment Fund grant, according to a news release.

Playworks, which advocates for the "power of play," served 27,000 students in 72 Michigan schools in the 2018-19 school year. It aims to land in more than 120 schools by fall 2020, the release said.

The nonprofit has provided short-term professional development services outside Southeast Michigan before, as far as the Upper Peninsula, but this fall is its first time providing full-year, direct services and "planting roots" outside the region, Playworks Michigan Executive Director Angela Rogensues said.

In seven Kalamazoo schools, Playworks will introduce its TeamUp program, which provides an on-site coordinator to help create a recess program.

"It's huge," Rogensues said. "I mean, seven schools are committing to having a full-time person one week a month come in and help them ensure kids have opportunities for safe and healthy play throughout the whole school year."

The health fund grant is helping, but the schools are also buying in: $10,000 each for the five schools utilizing the grant, and $15,000 each for two schools that joined later, said Rogensues, a Crain's 2017 40 Under 40 honoree.

The grant also helps fund Playworks Pro training sessions for teachers and staff in four Grand Rapids schools and six Lansing schools.

"The work of Playworks and its partners results in positive and far-reaching impact in a multitude of ways for the children and schools they serve," Sheila Dorsey, assistant superintendent for Kalamazoo Public Schools, said in the release. "From building self confidence and promoting inclusion and dispute resolution, to combatting bullying and improving academic achievement, these are life skills that help shape who our students are and who they will become."

The Michigan group is part of a national Playworks organization. The nonprofit operates in 2,500 schools nationally, working with students during and outside learning hours to help improve behavior, attitude and health through play time, the release said.

The health fund grant is in its second year, the implementation phase. In 2018, Playworks landed a $1.9 million grant over three years from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation for Southeast Michigan schools. The Detroit-based Wilson Foundation was renewing its commitment to Playworks after awarding a two-year, $1.14 million grant to the nonprofit in 2016.